Prologue Series

August 17, 2024

The Bible. Scripture. The Word of God. 66 books written by more than 40 authors, over a span of approximately 1500 years, on 3 continents (Asia, Europe and Africa) and in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). And yet, despite all those variables, the Bible is not a set of disjointed stories. It is one story with many chapters.

While the Bible paints an unwavering picture of the consequences of sin, the Big Story is about God’s pursuit of man and his plan to redeem and restore what was lost through sin.

Between paradise lost (Genesis 3) and paradise restored (Revelation 21), the Plan of Salvation is developed and expanded upon - ultimately manifesting itself in the birth, life, death, resurrection and 2nd Coming of Jesus, which ultimately brings about the final defeat of sin.

Before getting to the story proper there is a Prologue – Creation. God breathed creative power. He said it and it happened – “In the Beginning.” It is no accident that the first thing God wanted us to know is that there was a beginning and that He existed before “the beginning.” He is the Creator and everything that follows is intentionally created:

• Day 1 = Light – separation between light and darkness – day and night.

• Day 2 = Atmosphere – separates water (below and above)

• Day 3 = The water below is gathered into one place and dry land appears. Green plants and fruiting trees.

• Day 4 = Sun to rule the day and moon to rule the night and stars.

• Day 5 = Sea creatures and birds.

• Day 6 = Land creatures and every creeping thing.

Creation reveals the heart of God: His imagination, His sense of humor, His love of beauty. He looked at all he had made and it was good, but it wasn’t complete. The day was young and he had one more thing to do:

Genesis 1:26-28 - And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image and according to our likeness,” …. So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven, and over every animal that moves upon the earth.”

God looked around and saw everything he had made and this time it was very good.

• Day 7 = Everything was just as God wanted it so he stopped working. The Prologue says he “rested,” but he wasn’t tired, there was simply nothing left to do – because it was perfect. The 7th Day was to be a special, set-apart day, because God’s creation was complete and on this day he was going to enjoy fellowship with what he had made. It is God who made the 7th Day holy and he did so at creation. No human has the authority to change what God has declared holy.

Genesis 1 provides a wide-angle view of creation week – a sort of a snap shot with little detail. This, of course, makes humans crazy, because we want details and in the absence of details we make all sorts of stuff up. God did not see fit to give us a moment by moment account of each day of creation. Why? Because it is not critical information for the Big Story (Deuteronomy 29:29). THAT God did it – in 6 days – is what matters. The DETAILS are not important.

That brings us to Chapter 2:4-6 and our fist example of why having multiple translations is helpful.

In the NIV, this is how verses 4-6 reads: “This is the ACCOUNT of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens -- and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but STREAMS came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground--

• Our 1st word, “account,” in the original Hebrew is, “toledoth” which means, “descent, family or history: birth, generations.” The various English versions use “account,” “record,” “generations,” or “history.” This same word will be used 10 more times in Genesis to introduce family genealogies (5:1; 6:9; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 9; 37:2) I personally prefer “record” or “history” because that makes more sense to me.

• Our 2nd word, “stream,” in the original Hebrew is “ed”, which means “a mist.” Using the word “stream” to replace “mist” creates a completely different visual in the mind. I prefer mist.